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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
144
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (4th)
RSA Identity Governance and...
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (20th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is designed for Network Access Control (NAC) and holds a mindshare of 18.6%, down 25.3% compared to last year.
RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle, on the other hand, focuses on Identity Management (IM), holds 1.1% mindshare, down 1.5% since last year.
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)18.6%
Aruba ClearPass18.0%
Fortinet FortiNAC13.7%
Other49.7%
Network Access Control (NAC)
Identity Management (IM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle1.1%
SailPoint Identity Security Cloud9.2%
Microsoft Entra ID6.3%
Other83.4%
Identity Management (IM)
 

Featured Reviews

NF
Network and Technology Information Manager at Akkodis
Has improved authentication management and simplified visitor network access
The log capacity in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could be enhanced because today natively on the ISE can only have a look at the logs from the day before. You cannot search into the oldest logs; you have to use another tool for that. This can be blocking if you don't have any log consolidation solution. To do a search for an issue or something that happened two days ago, you cannot search directly in there. The capacity of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could be enhanced. Something between one week and one month for the log capacity would be nice.
Harshul Nayak - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Project Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Streamline identity lifecycle management with intuitive interfaces and robust policy features
The functions of RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle, especially the IGA, are quite strong with their custom forms and workflows integrated. The user interface is very friendly and easy to use, making it a good product overall. However, it still has to be on-premise and the cloud version is not easily accessible, as dedicated instances are required and machines cannot be shared as multi-tenant for various customers. The advanced policy features of RSA definitely help in defining certain policies such as segregation of duties. That's particularly useful along with creating different access reviews. Regarding access control in simplifying access management, RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle has strong foundations of groups and roles, which help in defining all policies very easily. This makes it very easy to integrate with other access management tools or privileged access management tools.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We find Cisco to be innovative and to offer good products."
"This solution can be used to protect one's application."
"By implementing ISE, it can lighten the overhead of the Cisco Catalyst Switches by not implementing port security, Dynamic Arp Inspection, DHCP Snooping, and this will also improve the switch's performance since the ISE server takes over the duty of posturing with its Policy Service Node persona."
"I like the automation of the collection of information."
"The most valuable features are the ability to retrieve information about Active Directory user names, viewing the log files to see which MAC address tried to connect with the created SSIDs, portal designing for your company, hotspot tools, and creating network rules for WiFi access."
"Being able to authenticate wired users through 802.1X is valuable as it enhances our security."
"The solution is stable and has good performance."
"I have found that all of the features are valuable. It is very easy to deploy because we are able to port users directly from Active Directory (AD) and LDAP."
"RSA Identity Governance and lifecycles are good for the access certification and auditing sections."
"Never - one thing I can say about RSA is that the boxes are stable and solid."
"With the tool in place, you need to hire fewer people to provide access, and you have control over your processes."
"All of the features in this product are good and this is a product that I recommend."
"The user interface is very friendly and easy to use, making it a good product overall."
"It improved security."
"Soft and hard tokens for two factor authentication has been introduced."
"The data collection is excellent and easy to do. It does not require a lot of configuration nor does it require rules to be written like other competitors do."
 

Cons

"The stability of the solution needs to be improved. It's not ideal. It's lacking overall."
"Cisco ISE can become quite complex, especially with policy sets, the entire authentication process, and everything involved."
"Also, the menus could have been much simpler. There are many redundant things. That's a problem with all Cisco solutions. There are too many menus and redundant things on all of them."
"Cisco ISE does not recognize devices and that is an issue we faced during its integration with our existing devices."
"The area where things could be improved is education. It's complicated to deploy initially because you have to know what you're getting into."
"The initial setup, though, is extremely complex."
"I think some areas where ISE could be better are perhaps in the number of integrations that they offer from a virtual standpoint, as well as having a better and more comprehensive pathway for the customer to go from a physical environment to a virtual one."
"It should be virtualized because many people have begun migrating to the cloud. They should offer a hybrid version."
"It could be a little more flexible with the installation of the product."
"RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle could improve out-of-the-box customization."
"We were excited that the self-provision feature was now built into the box but disappointed at the implementation."
"Technical support in Pakistan can be improved."
"If you use the appliance version then it won't handle a huge database volume."
"The user interface and workflow need improvement, and more connectors would help."
"This product is missing a lot of features which other competitors are providing. One of the key features that are missing right now is risk scoring. Additionally, there is not much scope for customization - everything is hard-coded and predefined, so it does not allow the developers to make many modifications."
"It was expensive initially, but day to day costs are minimal."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In general, licensing can be quite complex with Cisco products. It would be nice if it was a bit more intuitive and had fewer "gotchas" in there."
"It is fair."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, one being cheap and ten being expensive."
"The licensing can be confusing, but it is still pretty good."
"Cisco ISE is not inexpensive, but the solution is well-built and worth the expense."
"Its price is probably good if you use all of its features and functionalities to protect your environment. If you use only a part of the functionality, its price is too high. It is just a question of value and the functionality you use."
"I think licensing costs roughly $2,000 a year. ISE is more expensive than Network Access Control."
"ISE has always been expensive compared to other products in terms of what it does on a user level."
"I rate the product's price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"We are using the cloud platform, but we don't find it compatible to be served as a multi-tenant platform. This is a large drawback. It becomes expensive because it is then an all-dedicated solution. You have to have a separate tenant for each client, which increases the cost. The overall unit pricing can be less expensive than how it is right now."
"Pricing varies based on user count/number of modules you need."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise91
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Aruba Clearpass or Cisco ISE?
Aruba ClearPass is a Network Access Control tool that gives secure network access to multiple device types. You can adapt the policies to VPN access, wired, or wireless access. You can securely ...
What are the main differences between Cisco ISE and Forescout Platform?
OK, so Cisco ISE uses 802.1X to secure switchports against unauthorized access. The drawback of this is that ISE cannot secure the port if a device does not support 802.1x. Cameras, badge readers, ...
How does Cisco ISE compare with Fortinet FortiNAC?
Cisco ISE uses AI endpoint analytics to identify new devices based on their behavior. It will also notify you if someone plugs in with a device that is not allowed and will block it. The user exper...
What needs improvement with RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle?
There is room for improvement with RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle. As the size becomes larger, the collections and unifications of the IDs process become quite slow, which can be improved fu...
What is your primary use case for RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle?
We provide RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle as a service, mainly to oversee the digital identity lifecycle, from the initiation to the off-boarding at the end of that digital identity. Our cli...
What advice do you have for others considering RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle?
Overall, I would rate RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle at an eight out of ten.
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
SecurID
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, BC Hydro, Beachbody, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Cisco IT, Derby City Council, Global Banking Customer, Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha, Houston Methodist, Linz AG, London Hydro, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Molina Healthcare, MST Systems, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Reykjavik University, Wildau University
NTT Com Asia, Virgin Blue, Bank of Uganda, EMEA Telecommunications Company, LAit (Lazio Innovazione Tecnologica), NyNet, OTP Bank, Red Bull Racing, Rupert House School, Signify, UK Local Authority, Bancolombia, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (BPPR), TIVIT, Array Services, International Computerware, KPMG LLP, Moffitt Cancer Center
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet, Cisco and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: May 2026.
896,942 professionals have used our research since 2012.